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Knit Along Tips, Tricks & An Official Schedule

If you’re working on (or thinking about working on) the Remy Pullover for the fall knit along, the biggest chunk of knitting you’ll need to do is week 1, the body of the sweater. In case you’re just tuning in, you can check out the first week’s post and pattern and learn how to measure and calculate the perfect fit or your pullover. Today I want to share some tips and tricks for improving your knitting technique and, for knitters who might be scared of the cabling, how to knit cables!

If you’re already plugging along on your sweater body, I’ve got a full schedule for the knit along at the bottom of this post. And for you giveaway and Lion Brand Yarn lovers, you can get details on how to get in on the knit along prize pack giveaway, which will be full of Lion Brand Yarn and other goodies! Let’s get started. :)

Is casting on giving you some trouble?

Casting on. Lots of people master one cast on in their first few months of learning to knit and stick with it forever. For me personally, I used the long tail cast on (not the long tail tubular cast on) for years, but it would often make hats that were too tight, mittens that hardly pulled over my wrists, and socks that choked my ankles. One super simple way to combat that issue is to cast on with a needle a size (or if you’re a really tight caster on, maybe even two sizes) larger.

The swatches below feature the long tail tubular cast on, the cast on I recommend for the Remy Pullover in the knit along. If you look at the swatch on the left, you can see that the cast on results in a ribbed edge that’s less puckered than the one on the right, which was cast on with the same size 8 needle that the rest of the swatch was knit with. The swatch on the left was cast on with a size 9 needle, and the rest of it was knit with an 8. So easy, but totally effective!

How to knit cables

If you’ve never knit cables before, you totally should try it. They’re not as hard as they look at all, and I’ve got a couple videos to help demonstrate how to knit 2 over 2 and 3 over 3 cables, and how to make them slant either right or left. The only special tool you need to cable is a cable needle. I really like the shepherd’s hook-shaped needle pictured below, but you can use everything from a spare stitch marker to a safety pin or paper clip to make knitted cables. Check out the videos for how to knit cables either right or left handed. I promise that if you’re new to basic cabling, it isn’t very hard!

How to knit right handed cables

How to knit left handed cables

A bit of business

The schedule for the rest of the KAL

I hope today’s post is useful for you! Next week on Monday, I’ll share the pattern for the sleeves. I’m having so much fun hosting this knit along – I hope you’re having fun knitting along!

October 1 – casting on & the pattern for the body of the sweater

October 9 – tips & tricks for success (a.k.a. The sweater body involves the most work, ha! I want to give you time to keep up if you’d like and give others more opportunities to cast on with us.)

October 13 – How to knit the sleeves & the sleeve pattern will be revealed

October 20 – Finish knitting sleeve 1, start sleeve 2

October 27 – How to attach the sleeves to the sweater body

November 3 – How to do a raglan style reduction

November 10 – Details on finishing the sweater and casting off

November 17 – Yay, your sweaters are done! Let’s celebrate, share pictures of our sweaters and find out who won the Lion Brand giveaway!

The KAL giveaway

The giveaway of the Lion Brand prize pack will be available starting next Monday and will run through November 16 at 11:59 pm. You can enter the giveaway every knit along day starting next week. For every section of the pattern you finish, you can enter for an extra chance to win the prize pack. I’ll have more on how that all works next week!

The Remy Pullover knit along is brought to you by Lion Brand Yarns. Check out Lion Brand on social media: Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Pinterest. If you’re still needing to buy your yarn, you can get 20% off Wool Ease yarn from Lion Brand with the coupon code handsoccupied14 at lionbrand.com! The code’s good through October 17.

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a knitting, crochet and crafts designer. She first learned to knit at age 8 from a grandmother who saw in her a need for something to keep her busy. She's now a full time designer, video host, blogger & teacher. You can keep up with her designs and more by following handsoccupied on your favorite social network.

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Comments

I am learning to knit past the simple stuff! Lol….I get so frustrated sometimes! Lol….but I keep plugging along in learning the stitches I don’t know just yet. I frog it all out, and start all over again….it took me a gazillion tries just to learn to purl, and now I just love it and can’t believe how simple it is! Lol! Trial and error…how I learn.

Your site is lovely and thank you for sharing your tips! I shared them to my FB fan page http://www.facebook.com/Sanderellas A lot of us are learning, and I think you have some helpful information here!